Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Susan has been working on a crackle piece. After a bit of a rocky start, she is now off and weaving an interesting and lovely piece. Go here to see what she is doing.
What especially intrigues me about her piece is her use of closely related colors. Instead of the structure hitting you in the face with the fact that it is crackle, it is the interplay of closely related colors, with the bright pink dominating, that gets my attention.
This got me thinking.
I am weaving a more complex kind of crackle. I am using much finer yarns than Susan is. But I wanted to try more closely related colors to see what would happen.
I have tried two approaches.
In the first approach I decided to have the background weft be the same 
yarn as the warp and the pattern wefts, doubled, be red, but brighter than the reds of the warp and background wefts. I threw the pattern wefts two times. Actually, what I did was to throw two different reds or oranges. That is what you see at the bottom. The effect is very subtle, though more subtle in the photo than in the actual weaving!
One of the things that distracts here is the fact that the warp is slightly different colors as it moves across. Too much busyness, in other words. But, with a solid color warp I think this has possibilities.
In the second approach, I first used a bright dark blue for the background weft and two greens for the pattern. Yes, you cannot see the greens in the photo. I can’t particularly see them in the actual fabric either…
So I continued to use the bright dark blue for the background, and then two reds for the pattern wefts. One red was a bright red, the other one of the warp yarns. The duller red had some effect on the bright red, but not a whole lot. Why? Because the dull red was a 60/2 bombyx silk and the bright red was the much shinier silk organzine. The blue background weft is also the shinier silk organzine.
So, thank you, Susan! I haven’t quite got what I want yet, but it is a beginning! Indeed, I may have to turn to traditional four-shaft crackle to develop these ideas.
I don’t have much warp left to weave with. As you can see here, the 
back rod has come over the back beam and is moving relentless towards the heddles. I’m not quite done with the red and blue and then I want to try something quite ridiculous. Then off the loom she comes!
Related Post: Threading 4-shaft Crackle
"Inspired by Susan of Centerweave" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 13, 2008. © 2008 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina
3 comments:
Wow,Peg,you are so welcome! But the thanks and inspiration go to you, you know. You really mentored me through this project. And your crackle certainly inspired me though mine doesn't look like yours at all! My fiber is heavier and the Mango Moon is so many different colors within a half inch!
Wow again! Thank you!
And I can't wait to see the something ridiculous!
Susan, good students are known for inspiring teachers. Yes, I understand about the Mango Moon. And my suspicion is that photography does not do the greatest of jobs in capturing the effect. So thank you, and you're welcome!
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